Death Note: Extricate
by sodesne ON HAITUS
Summary: Yagami Raito had two choices. His choice was to become a shinigami. His trial was to return to the mortal world and not regret his actions of using the Death Note. However, how could Raito accept what he’s done without his memories as Kira?


**Death Note: Extricate**

**Summary**: Yagami Raito had two choices. To give in and become one with Mu or face a trial and become a shinigami. Obviously his choice was to become a shinigami. His trial was to return to the mortal world and not regret his actions of using the Death Note. However, how could Raito accept what he's done without his memories as Kira?

Extricate

Yagami Raito had two choices. Fade and become one with Mu or mutate and become a shinigami. The 'Old man,' as Ryuk called the king, had been very lenient on his case. Raito was the first to actually have a choice.

The answer almost came immediately, of course he wanted to become a shinigami rather then become nothing. While Raito wasn't too keen on the whole deformation of the body, he could live with the fact that he still existed.

Of course there was a catch, there always was one. With the Death Note, Ryuk was to kill him if the shinigami thought Raito could no longer provide entertainment. With L, working with the detective meant he couldn't slip up period, no questions asked, or it's off to the execution chamber. With any generous offer by shinigami, there had to be a catch.

Too bad no one told him about it. Even if they did, he would have forgotten the moment he descended into the mortal world once again.

----

The cave seemed to rise out of no where, but anywhere in the Shinigami Realm was no where. Dark outlines of bodies, not exactly human, could be seen in the dim light trickling into the cave opening. Here the King and his Council resided.

No shinigami had seen the true face of the King or his Council for years. If any trouble or questions arose, the King would ask them to stay at the mouth of the cave, ordering them not to venture further. For what reason no one knows.

So when the King made a motion for Ryuk to escort Raito in, the shinigami was startled. However, Ryuk showed none of his surprise but laughed in a raspy voice commenting briskly how honored Raito should be.

But of course, Kira's gaze never wavered.

In the dark cave, the outlines grew fainter. It was harder to determine the location of the King other than by his voice. The acrid smell would have made Raito cringe at any other occasion, but he merely tensed and forced himself to breathe normally.

"So you are Kira," a soft but commanding voice echoed in the darkness. The shadows shifted ever so slightly.

Raito nodded stiffly but didn't reply. The air was stifling, just like libraries where the atmosphere makes you want to stay quiet. Only here, the lines between respect and fear blended into a thick thirteen pt. line.

"It is not every century that we have such a potential candidate." The voice came out in whispers, but Raito never had to strain to listen to the words. "I have to say, Ryuk you've always had the best luck in us all."

"Does this mean Raito will go through the trial?" the only visible shinigami asked towering over Raito's six foot frame. "He's eligible."

"Yes…" was the only reply. It was a moment before the King asked, "Kira…you have a choice. Ryuk has already told you, what is your answer?"

"I will become a shinigami," Raito said.

"Ah, I had a feeling that would be your answer," the King exhaled gently. A small breeze rustled Raito's hair, this time he really did cringe. The smell was horrible. "But such choices don't come free, there are conditions."

Before Raito had a chance to ask what the conditions were, a boney finger came out of the darkness and the ground ripped into two. Lights streamed into the dark cave from the hole, Raito could see Tokyo under him before his body obeyed the command of nature and fell. Air rushed by him as gravity pulled him down faster and faster toward the ground. Even as the streets became visible and the people became clearer, Raito wasn't scared. The only sound he heard before his vision faded to white was the sound of his own exhilarated laughter.

---

Nate Rivers sat in the middle of his city made of cards. At the age of twenty three, the same age his predecessor died, L was fairly unoccupied. All the cases he received in the span of four years had been mediocre compared to the high thrill of the Kira case.

Once in a while, a serial murder would pull him out of his bored revere. Even then, the traps were too obvious, the trails were too clear, and the mistakes were too banal. Nothing like the game of cat and mouse he shared with Kira before his time as L.

He allowed his fingers to peek over his long pajama sleeves and delicately stack two paper cards into an upside down 'V' atop his previous row of cards. The walls of white hid L safely away from everything. He was allowed to think without anyone to observe his emotions, if he had any.

Twirling his long white hair between his thumb and forefinger, L stared into the complex card walls the surrounded him like a fortress. Next to his foot lay the small finger puppets that survived seven years of constant usage. He picked up his, Mello's, and L's leaving Kira's on the floor face down.

An unexplainable urge made him upright Kira's doll and stare at the top of the cap on the plastic finger puppet. L felt like Near again.

That feeling was starting to disappear with time. Time and time again, he felt more and more like his predecessor. Whenever a case came up, his first instinct was to wonder what L would do. Near was good at suppressing his own urges but he remembered a time where he went by his own inclination.

Four years ago when he first began the Kira case. That was the time he did it all his way. Near's way. Not L's way. Near's tricks, Near's traps, Near's investigations. Back then, L's way would have only gotten him killed. It was Mello and Near. But now it was L again.

As he stared at the Kira doll, Near almost felt disappointment. How had such a great case ended with …that? Yagami Raito had been an intelligent individual who matched L evenly. Near was quite sure that without Mello's help, it would have been him six feet under. As he thought of his blonde acquaintance (his subconscious whispered 'friend' but L never listened to that), Near felt a tug of remorse.

Quickly he placed the plastic Mello on the floor without disturbing his card buildings. Such thoughts were not to be dwelt upon. The past had past. Gently, Near put down his and L's finger puppets next to Mello's. He was L now.

_Yes_, Near thought as he laid Kira face down again. L stared into the blank computer screen above the card wall. _I am L. _

---

"I hope everyone likes my surprise!" Matsuda Tota exclaimed as he carefully balanced the pink box of donuts with a tray of six coffees. The morning skies of Tokyo in May were blue with a tint of white clouds. It was Aizawa's birthday, and while the chief explicitly clarified he wanted no surprises what-so ever, but Matsuda thought it was a perfect way to lighten up the mood after capturing that serial killer in Shinjuku.

It had been six years since the Kira case closed. Matsuda watched over his carryon as some shady figures ducked into the alley way, probably early rising drug dealers or something of the sort. In Kira's days, they wouldn't have dared to be out on the streets, but those days were long over. Not that it was a bad that Kira was gone. It was just…

Ah, the more he thought the more he contradicted himself. He did a hop-skip-hobble to balance the coffee on the donut box. Matsuda pouted as he looked down to see what he tripped over. A foot? Sticking out of the alleyway? Sighing, Matsuda placed the donuts and coffee down on the sidewalk. He hoped that the person laying there hadn't been mobbed or worse, attacked. Filling out a hospital form would be the worst way to start off a day.

Quickly he made his way to the unconscious figure, who was facing the wall away from him. The man (it was a man right? Shoulders were too wide for a woman's) was still breathing and the only any abnormalities was a smudge of blood on his hand. Matsuda gently shook the man and felt some sand release itself from the folds of the man's black shirt. Timidly, Matsuda eased the man onto his back.

"Hey, excuse me? Are you okay…" Matsuda trailed off as he took a good look at the man's face. He could never forget that face, twisted in malice and insanity. Matsuda could almost see the exact expression last seen on that face; eyes wide with desperation and mouth wide open gasping for breath. The expression of a pitiful dying monster who blamed everyone but himself was now smoothed into one of a relaxed sleeping man who seemed oblivious to the horror of his discoverer.

This was Yagami Light. No matter how much the rational side of his mind scream, 'Impossible, I saw him being lowered into the ground once and for all!' Matsuda found himself refusing all other explanations. His eyes watered. Matsuda hastily rubbed them dry and looked side to side afraid that someone would have caught him in such a shameful act.

How could he be crying tears of joy for Kira?

---

Four years ago in the Yellow Box, Light had not lied. He did have another notebook, tucked away from prying eyes and hands. At the time, it seemed like a bluff, an excuse not to die. And only Ryuk had known the truth.

The little black notebook sat innocently in the trick drawer Light had made years ago. No one bothered to check it. Yagami Light hadn't lived in that house for years. In fact, Yagami Sayu had sold the place, furniture and all, two years after Light's death. The house had become too big and lonely. The occupants' moving in was an average middle class family.

The trap drawer lay forgotten as a fifth grader occupied his old room. He finished his first year in middle school not even noticing the depth difference of the drawer. On May 13th, the whole family was murdered.

The Death Note gone.

---

_What is done can't be undone _—William Shakespeare

---

A/N: Just a 1:00 AM idea that popped into my head. I really want to see a NearxLight fic that isn't AU (as in no Death Note related anything). I will have more time with Spring Break and all, so I'll get another chapter of Reverse up hopefully today or tomorrow.


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